Pluricentrism in Portugal

Abstract

At least in the case of languages, such as Portuguese, which have spread throughout the world in a political and social context of European hegemony, a more or less accentuated tendency can be observed in all countries that speak them to maintain the centrality of the norm of former colonial metropolis. In this way, the varieties of the countries that were colonized tend to be seen as less correct and/or prestigious ways of using originally European languages (Clyne, 1992: 459). This stigmatization of the norms emerging from the Other, African, American or Asian, is verified both among European speakers and among extra-European speakers of the language. This is the main obstacle, perhaps the only one, to the affirmation of the pluricentrism of languages constituted by different geographic varieties, spoken in different countries where the language is official.